10 Chapter 9: Zankas Orel

Aexia chapter

The prison of Cragraven was built mostly all underground. The main reception area was upstairs and consisted of a single floor.

Aexia landed on the dark stone steps outside and opened both of the heavy double doors with both her hands.

Inside, the prison kept a rather rustic decor, not having much in the way of decorations but boasting a large wall with multiple painted portraits of past Wardens.

Aexia headed straight for the center of the room, past the desk, where a secretary sat taking notes. As she blustered straight through and went into the direction of the spiral staircase heading downwards, the secretary got up and attempted to stop her progress with a "You can't go there" which was met with an icy glare and promptly sat back down.

The two guards stationed at the bottom of the staircase, on basement floor 4, stood arms crossed on each side of the heavy wooden door inlaid with steel studs. "I need to go see Devon." The guards lifting their head recognized her and acknowledged, tapping the door in a strange rhythm.

Several seconds later, the door opened outwards and a tall slender man greeted the Exalted. He was Devon, current Head Warden of Cragraven and a childhood friend of Aexia. He was not a mage but was the equivalent of one in fighting prowess, an assassin that worked for Red Silence, Aera's supposedly non-existent assassin ring. Some years ago he had wanted to retire from that life and sought out the city of Kaden, where all are welcome.

"Good to see you Devon, wish it was under better circumstances"

"It's alright, we all have a job to do. I have to warn you though, he's in pretty bad shape. Mentally that is. Killing him might be the most humane thing to do."

"We'll see, where is he? Do you also have a spiritualist on call?"

"Down the block, we have him in solitary. We've had to restrain him because he kept trying to hurt himself. As far as spiritualists go, the last one quit, we have a promising new one though."

They headed down the cell blocks, crude prisons made from stone and mortar. Only small slots were present, allowing the guards to feed the prisoners. The actual doors to their cells were from the top, the prisoners were simply dropped down into the cells.

The prisoners shouted obscenities at them as they passed, one even cat-called Aexia but was quickly rebuked to the back of his cell by a flick of her wrists sending a kinetic wave at him.

At the end of the hall and after a turn to the left, a single closed door was the only thing in sight. That and what appeared to be a young teenager.

"Exalted, this is Iris. She's a second year student at the academy. She's quite the prodigy though."

The girl, Iris, stood close to 5"6, long black hair that stopped just below her shoulders. Her face was fair, bit of a pointy nose Aexia mused but generally average looking.

"Are we really using children now Devon?" Aexia asked with a hint of anger in her voice as they walked over there.

"Hey, she's actually specialized in spiritualism and mature for her age. Two years ago she hadn't even used magic yet."

Disbelief cleared appeared on Aexia's face and Devon nodden succinctly.

"It's true. Was this old hermit, Leblanc was the family name, secluded himself near her village. It was one of those old pure bloods that avoided the registry so we didn't even know about him. Well, Iris was playing along and gathering flowers near his house and the old fart goes and dies, no living heirs. So now his magic flowed into her and the whole town didn't know what to do. No one to teach her. So she agreed to come to the academy and in exchange she'll serve 5 years in the mage corps."

Aexia thought about the girl's situation and couldn't help but feel bad for her. Far from home, no family and now she'd have to ask her to enter the psyche of a broken man.

Iris waited patiently at the door, holding her hands inside one another. As the Exalted and the Head Warden got close, she bowed deeply.

"Now now, no need for that. Iris was it? I'm Aexia and it's us who are thankful for your help."

"It's just uhhh..I've never really done this before Ma'm. I've read the theories about it but I'm not confident I can do it..." Iris replied, tears almost swelling to her eyes.

"We'll be here to help if that's the case." Devon politely replied.

The trio entered the solitary confinement cell after Devon unlocked it. In the back, a single figure lay against the wall in what appeared to be a piece of cloth completely restraining them. Muffled screams echoed silently the closer they got.

"Alright Iris. There's a few phases to when you bind yourself with another soul. We don't want what happened to him to happen to you, so you can't go all the way. We just need enough to know what happened, not how it felt. So you don't need to delve too deep. Sit down, clear your mind and use the Clairvoyance Spell. Find his pulse and attach yourself to it, very loosely, so we can sever it if it comes to a worst case."

Iris nodded, her hands shaking and steeled herself. She sat down and focused, feeling the magical pulse of everyone in the room...except the man.

"Uhh, I'm sorry but he doesn't have a pulse?"

"What? He's a mage, he should have a pulse."

Aexia closed her eyes and focused...finding nothing.

"That's...odd to say the least. Okay well, there's another way then, with a direct contact."

Iris approached the stranger, gently putting her hand on his shoulder. He squirmed but was restrained enough that it didn't cause any problems.

She closed her eyes and sensed the beat of his life.She cast [Clairvoyance]. A myriad of colors shot up in her mind, navigating them, only closely peeking at each one to find what the exalted needed. One week ago, the man captured...not far enough. 10 days ago...the man in a frenzied panic, running and running...a bit further. Then she found it.

A stranger being, made almost from energy stood before her, well before the man, she was simply seeing his memories. The being asked the man to surrender his magic or be destroyed. The man launched a rank 4 spell at it, [Meteor] a pure fire element spell of the highest caliber. The being simply...dissipated or absorbed the spell. Unheard of. 

The man then went to his knees, begging for mercy and asking what the being was. The being once again reiterated its demand, emphasizing that there would be no more warning and that it was called Zankas Orel. The mage complied and repeated a phrase the being told him. Then all of the mage's magic simply flowed into the being before falling unconscious.

Iris severed the connection, sweat dripping from her forehead. She opened her eyes to a very curious Exalted and head warden to whom she explained what she saw.

The Exalted's face dropped after hearing what she had seen and both stormed out of the cell after thanking her for her service.

Aexia's mind was racing, trying to find a way to rationalize what she had just heard.

"This could very well be the first S threat we've ever encountered. If that thing's power grows exponentially after every mage it absorbs, we're looking at a global catastrophe. I'm going to have to go to the Empire's capital to meet with the council, see what they know about this. I'm going to need you to step up in the meantime Devon, I want ears everywhere."

"Understood. I don't think the merchants will like this though."

"I don't care what they like. Get it done."

It was a closely guarded secret but Aexia knew. The last time the being known as Zankas Orel roamed Amethas, some 300 years ago, half of all mages had been killed off and they still had not recovered from it. In the end, it took 50 of them to seal it away. The location of the sealing had been lost to time but some who had gone had left notes behind as to what they were planning. 

None of the 50 ever came back and Aexia highly doubted they still had 50 mages as capable today as back then.